The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and organizers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are always working to grow our community of industry partners to support students participating in the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC).

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the competition draws students from a variety of programs, including:

    • Business
    • Communications
    • Computer science
    • Economics
    • Engineering
    • Energy systems
    • Environmental studies
    • Finance
    • Integrated science and technology
    • Physics

    Your involvement in the CWC helps students build their professional networks and identify wind energy jobs that fit their interests and strengths. You can get involved with the CWC in several ways:

    Recruit

    • Share wind-related internship and entry-level job opportunities suitable for students and recent graduates on our LinkedIn page.
    • Participate in virtual and in-person networking events throughout the year.
    • Time commitment: 1–5 hours per school year
    • Financial commitment: none
    Three CWC team members speak to an industry professional and take notes.

    The CWC is a great opportunity for members of the wind industry to connect with future wind energy professionals.

    Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL

    Inspire

    • Describe your career trajectory to CWC students on conference calls or in educational webinars.
    • Time commitment: Flexible. One hour per engagement.
    • Financial commitment: none

    Mentor

    • Guide students as they complete their competition activities throughout the academic year. This can be a long-term or one-time engagement.
    • Time commitment: Flexible. Likely 12–36 hours per school year.
    • Financial commitment: none

    Support

    • Introduce students to industry-leading software that they can use to create their contest deliverables.
    • Provide funding to help students buy or build equipment, attend the CLEANPOWER conference, to support faculty advisors, and more.
    • Time commitment: If you introduce students to software, you and the students you work with can negotiate a time commitment that works for their needs and your availability.
    • Financial commitment: To be determined by you and your organization.

    Evaluate

    • Serve as a competition judge and assess team presentations and submissions.
    • Time commitment: About 40 hours over approximately one month for the final CWC event.

    You can also promote the CWC on your personal and professional channels! Check out our Partner Engagement Tool Kit for a timeline of announcements, images, sample social media posts, and best practices to make it easy for you to help us amplify the CWC.

    Ready to invest in the next generation of wind energy industry professionals? Fill out our industry interest form to let us know how you’d like to get involved!

    Testimonials

    Santiago Bermudez, Renewable Energies, Invenergy LLC

    “As a CWC judge, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know some of the brightest students I have ever met—some of whom are now my peers. This competition is, in my opinion, the best experience college students going into the renewable energy sector can have.”

    Santiago Bermudez
    Judge, CWC 2018 and 2020
    Project Manager, Renewables at Invenergy LLC

    “I was impressed with the creative solutions the collegiate teams applied to their project development challenges. CWC emulates real-world wind farm development, giving students an opportunity to learn in a hands-on way, and uniquely prepares them for careers in the wind industry.”

    Connor Kobieski
    Judge, CWC 2018 and 2020
    Director, International Project Management at Invenergy LLC

    Connor Kobeski smiling at the camera.
    Headshot of a man smiling.

    “The CWC allows students to experience the whole process of developing a new wind turbine design, and there’s so much value in that. I think most people understand the concept phase of design—using the knowledge you’ve gained in engineering classes to solve a technical problem. But can you build it? Test it? Redesign and optimize it? Those are things we do in industry all the time, and CWC gives students a chance to experience them firsthand. We’ve also hired several CWC alumni both as interns and full-time engineers, and it shows in their teamwork skills and systematic approach to solving problems.”

    David Magnuson
    Judge, 2020 and 2022
    Technical Training Leader, Edison Engineering Development Program, GE Renewable Energy

    CWC Industry Partners

    The CWC is proud to partner with the following organizations (this list shows a representative sample of CWC partners):

    The AES Corporation

    "aes"

    The AES Corporation is the only U.S.-based global power company in the world, which gives it unique knowledge and experience to develop and deliver innovative energy solutions. The AES Clean Energy team of more than 1,000 clean energy professionals across the United States can create economically viable and environmentally friendly solutions.

    The company also has long-term owners and operators committed to being integrated and invested in the communities where they work. Their projects range from small-scale distributed energy generation to some of the largest utility-scale power projects in the country, serving a wide variety of customers, including residential, communities, municipalities, utilities, and some of the nation’s most prominent corporate customers.

    With more than 450 wind, solar, and storage projects, from Hawaii to New York, AES has the proven experience and expertise to deliver innovative solutions and do so at scale.

    EWAC

    EWAC logo

    Energy and Wildlife Action Coallition (EWAC) is a national coalition formed in 2014, whose members consist of electric utilities, electric transmission providers, and renewable energy entities operating throughout the United States as well as related trade associations. The fundamental goals of EWAC are to evaluate, develop, and promote sound environmental policies for federally protected wildlife and closely related natural resources while ensuring the continued generation and transmission of reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean electricity. EWAC supports public policies, based on sound science, that protect wildlife and natural resources in a reasonable, consistent, and cost-effective manner.

    General Electric

    General Electric

    GE Renewable Energy, an integral part of the GE Vernova portfolio of energy businesses, is a $16 billion business that combines one of the broadest portfolios in the renewable energy industry to provide end-to-end solutions for customers demanding reliable and affordable green power. Combining onshore and offshore wind energy, blades, hydropower, energy storage, utility-scale solar power, and grid solutions as well as hybrid renewables and digital services offerings, GE Renewable Energy has installed more than 400 gigawatts of clean renewable energy and equipped more than 90% of utilities worldwide with its grid solutions. With nearly 40,000 employees present in more than 80 countries, GE Renewable Energy creates value for customers seeking to power the world with affordable, reliable, and sustainable green electrons.

    GE Vernova, a dynamic accelerator comprised of the company’s Power, Renewable Energy, Digital and Energy Financial Services businesses, focuses on supporting customers’ transformations during the energy transition.

    Invenergy

    Invenergy

    Invenergy drives innovation in energy. Invenergy and its affiliated companies develop, own, and operate large-scale renewable and other clean energy generation and storage facilities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Invenergy's home office is located in Chicago, Illinois, and it has regional development offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Poland, and Scotland.

    Invenergy and its affiliated companies have successfully developed more than 30,000 megawatts of projects that are in operation, construction or contracted, including wind energy, solar power, transmission infrastructure, and natural gas power generation and advanced energy storage projects.

    MathWorks

    MathWorks

    MathWorks is the leading developer of mathematical computing software. Engineers and scientists worldwide rely on its products to accelerate the pace of discovery, innovation, and development. MathWorks’ MATLAB, the language of engineers and scientists, is a programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numeric computation. Simulink is a block diagram environment for simulation and model-based design of multidomain and embedded engineering systems. The company produces over 120 additional products for specialized tasks, such as image and signal processing, control systems, robotics, and deep learning.

    mCloud

    mCloud is unlocking the untapped potential of energy-intensive assets with cloud-based solutions to optimize asset performance, reliability, and sustainability. The AssetCare portfolio of solutions combine the power of digital twins, artificial intelligence, and analytics to enable owner operators in oil and gas, wind energy, and commercial facilities to get the most out of critical energy infrastructure.

    Ørsted North America

    Ørsted North America

    A global clean energy leader, Ørsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and land-based wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants. Ørsted is the only energy company in the world with a science-based net-zero emissions target as validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Four years in a row, the company was ranked the world’s most sustainable energy company by Corporate Knights. 

    In the United States, the company has approximately 650 employees and a growing portfolio of clean energy assets and partnerships that includes offshore wind energy, land-based wind energy, solar power, energy storage technologies and e-fuels. A leader across the renewable energy sector in the United States, Ørsted holds the top position in offshore wind energy, with approximately 5 gigawatts in development, and operates America’s first offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Block Island. Ørsted North America has a total U.S. land-based capacity of 5 gigawatts across wind energy, solar power, energy storage technologies, and e-fuels.

    Siemens

    Siemens Gamesa unlocks the power of wind. For more than 40 years, Siemens Gamesa has been a pioneer and leader of the wind energy industry, and today its team of more than 27,000 colleagues works at the center of the global energy revolution to tackle the most significant challenge of the generation—the climate crisis. With a leading position in onshore, offshore, and service, they engineer, build, and deliver powerful and reliable wind energy solutions in strong partnership with their customers. A global business with local impact, they have installed more than 127 gigawatts and provide access to clean, affordable, and sustainable energy that keeps the lights on across the world.

    SOLUTE

    Furow powered by solute.

    SOLUTE is a multidisciplinary engineering consulting company with over 15 years of experience and a strong specialization in renewable energies and meteorology. One of the company’s most successful developments is the wind data analysis, wind resource assessment, and wind farm layout and optimization design software called Furow.

    UL Solutions

    UL Solutions

    Sustainability goals, declining costs, and technological advancements have made renewable energy the fastest growing sector of the energy market. UL Solutions’ global expertise in energy and asset advisory services, due diligence, testing and certification, and software applications in solar, wind, and offshore wind power provides the expertise you need for product or project certification, early-stage feasibility and design, project development and financing, managing operational wind and solar power projects, to extending the life of those projects.
     
    Having assessed over 300 gigawatts of renewable energy projects, UL Solutions has worked with customers across all continents in all kinds of complex terrain and climate regimes. From small-scale microgrid systems of solar power and energy storage that brings energy closer to a remote village, to complex utility-scale wind and solar farms that power corporations and cities, UL Solutions can help support your project anywhere around the globe.